theashtraysays

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. 
 

Rescheduled TWICE… I’ve had this ticket forever it seems. 
 

Gonna be worth the wait tho. 

Jayhawks

On 4/17/2024 at 11:44 PM, Wilc Os said:

I've just had the worst RSD day news in a long time; The Whole Love Expanded LP has zero copies sent out to New Zealand (where I live).  Not a single copy of the 4500 has reached these shores.  I guess I won't be queuing up early on Saturday morning after all.  I was looking forward to this so much and am majorly disappointed.  This on the back of Wilco not including New Zealand on their recent tour "Down Under" (Which I travelled to Australia to catch).  It feels like Wilco has abandoned our little country - And its fans here (although I know this is a label distribution decision, and not a Wilco Band one).

So, ISO - The Whole Love Expanded 3LP.  Will cover shipping to New Zealand, paypal fees etc.  But I'm not interested in Discogs style "Flipper" pricing.  If you're nearby (Australia perhaps) and find more than one copy at your local record store on Saturday, and feel like giving some Wilco Love to a fellow fan then I'm your man.

@bebop @froggie @visions @theashtraysays Perhaps one of you can help??

I won't be going to RSD on Saturday (out of town, and not a huge vinyl collector anyway), but I can check on Monday and see if our local record shop still has a copy if you didn't score one over the weekend.  I'm in the US by the way.  I presume we met last month?? I'm Vince -  I was at all the shows there. 

Cedric Burnside

There was one night in either the original Residency or (more likely) the first winterlude where they played a really weird set - maybe more bleak than deep - that Jeff said “would never happen again” or something like that. 

I don’t recall a deep cuts set at SSF tho. 
 

I’m sure bbop would know….

The Enmore was indeed more suitable for a rock show than the ICONIC (oops I did it again) Sydney opera house, not that I’m endorsing one over the other. But for sure the Enmore show felt a lot looser than the previous night at what Jeff described as being “inside someone’s sculpture”.  
The Enmore had a cool art deco vibe throughout with lots of velour and cool details all around. The setup was unique in that there was a GA “pen” in front of the stage for about 1/3 of the floor area, with a rail BEHIND the “pen” but none in front so it was all elbows-on-stage for the very crowded GA section. Behind that rail was a 5’ gap and then several rows of seats going to the back of the venue. There was a pretty large balcony in the back half that also included very narrow side balconies extending almost to the stage. Those side balconies only had two rows of seats with the upper row being a good 3-4 feet above the lower row. We were in that lower row on the Pat side, and the nice thing was that you could stand up without blocking that second row at all. Odd layout but the GA pen did help the vibe. 
Sound was just OK, with a rather annoying AC hum being quite present for most of the show. The soundboard was oddly located under the balcony way back past the rising floor seats such that the FOH crew only got a small window to hear through, under the balcony and over the crowd. 
But none of that seemed to hurt the vibe which was loose and fun and perhaps had the best singalong crowd of the whole tour. 
It did take a while for Jeff to enter banter corner, going six songs deep before the first “how’ve you been?” and saying “this is our last night, but we’ll be back!” adding “y’know what, let’s just have another show tomorrow night!”. And he reprised his localization on IATTBYH with a “g’day” after the hello.  
After a very enthusiastic “SHIIIIINE TODAY” from the audience in Either Way, we got a “thanks for singing along - you sounded great!”. 
After the ever-present lone fan replied with “you’re great” (or something like that), Jeff replied “thanks for the individual encouragement! I’d like to go around to each one of you individually now. We’re here to perform a service!” 
After another full-choir response in Hummingbird, he said “I can’t believe you know the words to so many songs. So glad to find out you haven’t forgotten us! We haven’t forgotten any of you either. I don’t remember all the names but I recognize the faces. And lots of Wilco shirts!” Then to one woman in the front (who I was told was the same woman who came down front in Canberra when he sang Hummingbird) “but I don’t know why YOU’RE not wearing one” which got a bit of a booooo rebuke from the rest of the crowd. 
Someone later hollered something that sounded like “turn it up” but Jeff at first misheard it and replied “Turn it off? Oh, turn it up?”, to which someone chimed in (or Jeff just chimed in) “Take it off??” and feigned unbuttoning his jacket a bit. He stopped, explaining “Seems like the band is against the idea. They’ve seen it.”  
This brought on more shouts and song names from the audience to which he replied “we’re gonna get to ALL those songs, don’t worry”.  This was not entirely true of course. 
After IG, Nels (clad in his navy blue “PJ” top this evening… iykyk), strapped on his white double neck beast for Dawned on Me. Jeff always has a snarky comment about that contraption, tonight saying “His solo was so good we make him put this on afterwards so he doesn’t get too cocky.” 
Toward the end of the main set he asked “Having a good time? We’re gonna miss you. We’ll come back as soon as we possibly can. And New Zealand. Don’t tell them.”  And when someone suggested they come to India, replied “Sure! Do you have a place? Just leave your address… we go everywhere eventually.” 
During HMD, Glenn did indeed twirl his stick, prompting a cheer from the audience as well as a Jeff mid-song comment of “don’t encourage him.”  
Encore break ends, and Jeff welcomes the Leah Senior band onto the stage for CaliStars, introducing Leah, Jessie, and Andi as “just the most badass traveling partners ever”.  Jessie gets the last solo of the song, which turns into a great little extended guitar duet with him and Nels. 
As the closing Spiders gets to the audience participation section, Jeff challenges the crowd that “if you think you’re too cool to put you hands in the air and clap at a rock concert, you’re not!”  
Moments later, a very free-spirited fan hoisted more than just her elbows on the stage, running across the front of the stage from Pat, past Jeff, and then over to the Nels side, clapping all the way. This brought two responses - Jeff saying “but you ARE too cool for that!”, as well as tour manager / part time bouncer Eric appearing from the stage wings to make sure the fan made her stage exit as promptly as her entrance. 
Pah-pah-paras immediately followed, and the once-in-over-a-decade Aussie tour came to a close. Goodbyes were waved, lights came up, and it was back to reality for us all. 
Till next time / place - cheers all!!

Vince 

11 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Did you manage to arrange that session with JT to confirm the rumour about water going down the bath plughole the other way round?

 

Also, it should have been 'bloke' not 'guy'. That's what spending too much time around Americans does to you.

7 hours ago, bböp said:

I’m afraid that’s a couple of notches above my pay — or ta — grade these days. You could ask Vince, I suppose.

firstly let me be clear that I’ve never been in a bathtub with JT (or any member of the Wilco band and/or Tweedy family or organization) so that’s not my area of expertise. 

secondly I was really hoping to conduct my own (solo) experiment on the whole drain thing but it turns out that all four lodging choices I’ve made have showers without bathtubs so it’s going to remain unverified for me. Science will have to wait. Alas. 

Well let me just go ahead and break the seal on the word “iconic” and say that my first visit to this iconic venue was everything I could hope for. There, that’s done. On to the recap. 
The venue is amazing. It’s unique, artsy, and yes, iconic. There are seats 360 degrees around the totally open, flat stage. The side sections are small-ish, interlocked blocks of seats. Behind the unobstructed stage are more seats. The stage has no “sides” to cloak the crew or road cases. With that in mind, there were no “fringe curtains” for projections anywhere. 
The front row was really close to the rather low stage, and the band was placed pretty far forward on the stage. We were in the second row in front of Pat and it felt like I could’ve helped him tune his strat a couple times.  The main stack of PA speakers were actually at about row 5, but there were at least a dozen lip speakers on the stage that gave us great sound down front. 
The crowd was really good, with minimal camera use (there were signs indicating no photography - oh and there were no photogs for the first few songs at all as there isn’t any space between row one and the stage).
Speaking of the crowd… it was a sitter. No attempt to stand other than half-hearted standing ovations for a couple of the “hits” till we got to the end. 
Wilco came in at a very un-Wilco like 9:06 (no opener this night) with a sitter-friendly Hell is Chrome. 

Banter corner was very much alive and well, in spite of Jeff saying (again) that they weren’t gonna talk much since they had a lot of music to play. 
Just before IATTBYH, he looked at the front row and said “I bet you didn’t think you’d be this close did you?  You feel scared don’t you? It’s awkward for us too.”  Then, turning to the audience behind the stage, he said “they feel safer up there”

And during that song, we FINALLY got some localization when Jeff added “G’day” and “how are you going” after the “hello”. 
After Hummingbird, unencumbered by a guitar, he did do a little waving to the folks all around the stage, which did seem to appease the folks in the rear. He then gave his apologies for not playing Sydney in so long “we’ve put out ten records since last time…” and said how good it was to be back once again. He seemed to be as awe-inspired as the rest of us about the venue itself, saying “it’s like playing inside someone’s sculpture”.

Acknowledging the 360 seating, he said “I’m definitely cut out for playing with my back to people”, and “I love all of you, but these (folks behind me) are my people”. 
Going into Box Full of Letters, he said “this is the oldest song we’re gonna play tonight. Were any of you around then?” (Applause). “I don’t believe you.” and, turning to the folks in the back “I know YOU were”.

He then quipped, “ok that’s enough. I’ve fulfilled my obligations for the people back there - I’m not going to pay any more attention to you. Just kidding” and “I feel like a dog in a scientific experiment where you put it in the middle of its two owners to see which one he’ll run to. I’ll just stay here chasing my tail”, after which they finally got to play Box… 

Pat’s solo for Box got another (milder) “Pat Pat Pat” chant which he waved off / waved on as he headed back to his keys. 
Before Jesus etc, Jeff said to “sing along if you know it”, which we did, and after that hit song there was a solid applause, prompting Jeff to say “don’t do that you’ll make the other songs jealous” 

As the main set came to a close he once again said how great it was to be back and thanked everyone. During HMD, he gave a sweeping hand gesture back to Glenn for the obligatory stick twirl. There was still (almost) no standing for that or for Shot. After that closer, Jeff blew kisses 360 to everyone. 
Band comes back after a short encore break with Via Chicago, and everyone is STILL SITTING which continues through Cali Stars. No guest singers for that. 
Before starting Falling Apart, Jeff noticed that the lighting seemed to be set wrong for that particular song. “I think maybe we’re in a different song. That lighting is pretty moody for this song”. Then explained “we’re gonna play a country song, then a couple rock songs, and that’s it. We’re not gonna leave and come back so now would be a good time to give it up” (which we did).

Once they hit the opening chords for I Got You, some of us couldn’t take it any more and proceeded to stand (and bring the crowd with us) for the last two songs. 
The band left the stage at 11:06. 
Spriders was on the printed setlist after Falling Apart but was replaced with I Got You and Outtasite. 
One more show this run… it’s been a blast. 
 

Cheers!

Vince 

Well of course the second night was better than the first for you @froggie- you were standing next to ME tonight!! 
(Great meeting you and sharing the rail there!!). 
Railing vs boothing is a no-brainer. Gimme that pogo-friendly rail anytime, especially once Outtasite kicks in. 
I didn’t catch any lyric flubs, but there was a very rare Nels sour note on one of his more prominent non-improv solos (don’t recall which) where he definitely plucked a squeaker and got that look on his face like he just passed gas in church.  There was no hiding it. He looked over at Jeff and the band expecting some kind of reaction - Jeff was looking the other way but I think I saw Glenn crack a knowing smile. It was quite priceless. 
I did love the setlist change ups, and the barn burner encore is always a treat. Leaving a Wilco show with burning feet and calves that are beyond protesting is what it’s all about. You know, just Being There. 

Booth Report:

We were clued in on the existence of these “booths” by local Melbourne-ite @eckythump, and for this “night 1” show (which was actually the final added night of three) we decided that our little group could use a night off our collective feet and chucked in the extra bucks to reserve part of one of the ~20 booths. These are located behind the soundboard and elevated above that massive main floor. There are even a couple more elevated areas behind the booths with rails that seemed quite popular with the locals who wanted that same elevated view without the cushy booth seats (or surcharge). The booths were semi-circles that each held up to 8 people (though ours and pretty much all the others I saw were less than full) arranged in two rows that spanned the width of the venue. 
They were certainly comfortable enough, with fine sight lines and great sound. But they were quite a bit further back than I expected, and the vibe was definitely like watching from your living room sofa. The lone fellow who attempted to stand was promptly shouted down, and down was the rule of the evening. While it was a nice change of pace from the other shows I’d attended on this run, the conclusion was that this just wasn’t my tribe.
Maybe when I’m a bit older. 
Back to the sidewalk tomorrow….

It was indeed a strange little sit / stand / rush dynamic. But good lord those seats WERE quite comfy. 
My newfound friends in the front row had all conspired to break the standing seal right away, but when they opened with Hell is Chrome it was clear that Jeff was reading the room and not cranking it up early. But when Jeff kinda coaxed the crowd leading into RNG, we went for it!! 
One of the more peculiar moments in that tug of war was when a lone woman came down the aisle to the front as Jeff started Hummingbird, which seemed to be a favorite song of hers. Jeff kinda acknowledged her presence and sang a line or two “At” her. Once that song ended she left, and as Jeff got his guitar for the next song and returned to the mic asking “where’d she go?”. 

Deeper setlist, closer rail, laid-backer crowd. 
That’s pretty much the story there for night 2 imho. Give me a Sunken Treasure and a How to Fight Loneliness and it’s a good night for me. We could tell that the crowd wasn’t going to be as rabid as night one while we were out on the sidewalk, as the line at 15 minutes till doors was nowhere near what it was the night before. Not a bad crowd at all (unless you were the opener - see below), just not as much excitement flowing back to the stage I thought. But a funner show at least for me in terms of setlist selection. 

About that opener - Leah Senior. She’s a pretty typical Jeff-friendly female folk rock indie singer songwriter, playing acoustic guitar and piano. She had two others with her for various songs - an electric guitar player and (more sparsely used) backup singer. Those two had to be brother and sister in my book. Her songs were pleasant enough, and the night one crowd was reasonably respectful, save for the couple songs she chose to perform purely solo acoustic.  For night 2 she decided to forego the solo songs and keep things a bit more upbeat with a fuller band staying up there. But the talkers toward the back of the room had also upped their game, and you could see a bit of annoyed frustration on her face as some of her songs hit quiet spots. She deserved better I thought. But a GA room with bars in the back are gonna be tough for openers and that’s just the way it is I suppose. 

^ what he said. 
 

Indeed a fun, fun night of rock and roll. Loved the room!  Compact stage with a rather shallow floor and small balcony set way back. Sound was pleasantly loud (the big row of subs in front of the stage did the job without being jarring at all) and quite good. Just the right setup for a cozy Wilco show. Hoppin crowd with just a touch of rowdy as mentioned above. 
 

Tonight’s lyric flub was perhaps a result of a little too much “palate cleansing”, as Jeff totally botched the OPENING LINE of Muzzle of Bees after his comment / Glenn - jab. So we’ll never really know what kind of highway there was. Alas. Still one of my favorite things to hear them play live. 
 

The canned water (of which I did partake) was a very welcome little treat, as I’m still nursing the last of a lingering cough that showed up in Japan. A little weird to see Jeff with a canned beverage tho. 
 

Theologians got the little extra closing riff that Jeff sometimes does, which was absent in Japan. And the sustained noise-note at the end of Handshake Drugs seems to keep getting progressively longer with each show these days, leaving the audience in quite an applause conundrum. 
 

Oh, and Pat has NOT (yet?) shaved the beard. 
 

1 hour ago, lost highway said:

^ It's good of you to find a font size that my old man can see without his readers, but it's a bit overwhelming.

Yeah sorry about that. Copy/paste while I was offline on a plane. There’s probly a way to fix it but I’m a Luddite. 

…Which was the show that almost wasn’t, at least for me.  

After a rough night without much sleep and perhaps some bad midnight udon noodles, I almost didn’t go to the show cause I felt like crap all day.  Waiting for the delayed bullet train on the 34F degree platform for almost two hours did not help. Apparently there was an incident involving a train and a person somewhere that delayed all the trains from Tokyo to Osaka (including, according to Cheryl’s post) the band.  But come showtime I thought I was stable enough to make it so I went on in during the Finom set which made the wait much less.

Sadly I didn’t make it all the way through the show, having to exit the front area about 1/3 of the way through.  I did manage to get back in to the back area for a few more songs before having to bail before the encore and head back to my hotel.  I’ve never left a Wilco show before the end in my life.  Sigh…

So, Namba Hatch is a somewhat older venue than the Tokyo pair, with a similar setup of open floor and smaller seated balcony.  Much smaller room than the Tokyo ones, with a funky spaceship-like motif inside and out. Once again great sound.  And once again minimal banter, although Jeff did offer this explanation for that while i was still there.   He said that he isn’t talking very much at these shows because he can’t speak the language. But what he can do is play music, and he wanted to communicate with the audience in the language of music.  This did get a very nice response from the audience. 

The setlist had a few nice swap outs, and I was fortunate enough to hear Muzzle of Bees before I had to skip out.

Oh, and I was able to meet Hi-Rose (Rae)at this show who asked if I knew Kidsmoke (the VC person, not the song), and of course WHO DOESN’T??? Nice meeting her and also Osamu at these shows… good to see Japan has their share of rabid / long term loyal fans too.  

Hopefully there were others who could chime in with any other notable moments. And btw I am feeling quite a bit better today as I make my way to Australia “via Hong Kong”.  

See y’all soon. 

Vince

Once again thanks to the bbop for getting this started…

If you haven’t read my comments about night one in Japan yet, do that first.  My thumbs can’t handle repeating all the stuff that was the same like the entry process which was the same but with higher numbers.  On we go…

Namba Hatch is located right next to Haneda airport, and was a lot like EX Roppongi, but bigger.  Even wider room, even higher ceiling, and deeper.  The standing floor was sloped upward a bit (I didn’t notice if there was a “ledge” anywhere back, and also had rails going across the floor left to right about every ten feet. They did have lip speakers and the sound was exquisite all over.  And the bar situation was much improved though I still skipped the drink and just grabbed a water after the show (which is downright civilized really).  Once again the 30 minute doors-to-show time was wholly inadequate for the higher numbers to catch the full opener.  

Again on to the show…

The setlist started off with some nice changes right off the bat, with Hell is Chrome opening up.  The lyric flub came a little later in the set on Side with the Seeds this time,  

Still not a lot of banter, but Jeff did opt to “localize” things by swapping “konichiwa” for the “hello” in IATTBYH” which was quite well received.  And he again apologized for not being in Japan for ten years, promising that he would learn more Japanese for next time and that they wouldn’t wait ten more years for the next time.  He apparently spotted someone with a hat that said “AM”, and complimented him on it before playing Box, adding that this song is from that record, and next time we want everyone wearing that hat.  

Returning from the encore break, Glenn once again feigned having something to say and stepping up to the mic, only to back off and head to his kit.  Once again Jeff asked if he had something to say but he just said “sorry”.  

The encore with cali stars and the all-rock closers was a barn burner and the crowd ate it up. Wheel was not on the printed setlist but was added and was a very pleasant surprise. 

One humorous moment.  The stage setup included the hanging cords in the back for projections, along with a small section of hanging cords flanking the stage in the front (theyve used that setup recently). During Wheel ( I think?), Pat tried to move toward the front of the stage for some guitar antics, sweeping through the hanging cords on his side.  Unfortunately, the headstock of his tele got woefully tangled up in the cords, basically imprisoning him to remain in that very spot for the rest of the song.  The rest of the band found this highly amusing, and Pat’s attempts to both play and detangle himself were not effective.  His tech Austin came over to help but could do no better.  He finally brought over a guitar stand that Pat used to set the guitar down on after the song, still entangled.  After the band exited, Ashwin and Austin worked a good five minutes to detangle it, with a hearty round of applause from those of us in the audience who’d watched the whole thing.

All in all this was the more rocking of the two Tokyo shows, and seemed to show the band shaking off any jet lag from coming over.  

Off to get some sleep and hit show number three tomorrow…

Cheers, 

Vince 

Many thanks to bbop for starting the thread.  As I don’t have a laptop with me this trip, it was nice to get that head start so my thumbs wouldn’t have quite so much to do.  So here goes…

I was fortunate to make the trek to Japan to catch Wilco playing here for the first time in about ten years, and the opening night got off to a rousing start. 

The EX theater in the Roppongi neighborhood is a very nice modern room, with a high ceiling and deep set small seated balcony overlooking a wide standing floor that was tiered at least one level about halfway back with a rail. Terrific sound, even up front and without lip speakers on the stage. 

GA in Japan is well, different. There were two kinds of GA tickets (plus reserved balcony seats): one kind that only local Japanese folks could buy, which went on sale weeks before the second kind for foreigners could buy. The local tix had to be converted at convenience stores into numbered paper tickets, while the other tickets just had a QR code from the email. Doors opened 30 minutes ahead of music. At the door, the numberd tickets were admitted in sequence in groups of ten. Once the first 900 numbered tickets went in they started allowing the QR code people in. It allowed the locals to get in first which was good. Now, if you were clever enough to have a local buy tickets for you, you could get in early, and once you were in then it was just regular GA with no further policing.  30 minutes is not enough time to get everyone in through a single door, and I for one missed a couple songs. Other than that it was a clever way of admitting.  How the numbers got assigned was a bit of a mystery; seemed to be based on how fast you bought the ticket went they went on sale. 

The other notable entry process point was that there was minimal security.   O m teal detectors, no pat downs, no screening for water bottles, etc. In fact, folks went in with backpacks,  even saw a small roller suitcase or two.  The venue had lockers inside where, for a couple bucks, you could stash all your belongings and coats (it was hella cold) to watch the show. 

Oh, one more thing about the ticket / entry process.  In addition to the ticket, everyone had to buy a “drink ticket” for about $4 on the way in.  That could get you a water or a beer or maybe a mixed drink. There were a few stations with water but unfortunately there was only one single-thread bar which made the prospect of getting an actual drink pretty much impossible. Weird. 

On to the show… Finom opened up at 630 sharp, with Spencer on drums with Sima and Mayci on guitars.  Great set featuring their more “well known” (to us anyway) songs plus a new song Haircut that was just released that day. Catchy little ear worm that one.  

Wilco comes on at 730 sharp, starting off with a set that picks up right where they left off from their west coast run pre-surgery. The crowd is respectful but still energetic and appreciative, with quite a few fans knowing all the words. Jeff makes his requisite lyric flub early on in Handshake Drugs, giving that familiar sheepish smile to his bandmates. They rip through the set and the crowd seems to be getting more and more into it as they go, especially with the “hits” and of course Impossible Germany.  

One woman named Yuko (who was friends with our Japanese companion Shinobu) had made a very nice fabric sign that said “WILCOME BACK TO UNLIKELY JAPAN” and hung it over the front rail, which got smiles from the whole band. Speaking of the band, the rumors are true that Pat is rocking the Santa Claus white beard again, and it looked to me like Glenn had gotten a bit of a haircut but the locks are still there so  rest assured ladies. 

Hip report - to me, it seemed like Jeff was back in the proverbial saddle, with plenty of stage wandering and even the jog-dance for Hummingbird.  Nice to see that.

What about the banter, you may ask… well, it was sparse as one might expect in a foreign land.  Jeff apologized for the long absence “we’ve put out five records since we were here last and that’s too long.  Sorry about that.” Ahead of Box Full of Letters he said “This is a song that came out about 30 records ago… we’re gonna try to represent them all.” (Spoiler - they didn’t). There were lots of “Arigato’s” along the way throughout the evening but not much else. 

As the band came back for the encore, Glenn acted like he was going up to Jeff’s mic to say something, but then just slipped back to his kit.  Jeff asked him “do you have something to say Glenn?”, to which Glenn just replied “arigato”. 

The show ended with Spiders, during which Jeff started the clap sequence saying “can we do this?” before shifting to a Jeff - prompted “pah pah para” and a “you can do this!” and finally “you’re pretty good!” (which they/we really were!).

Oh, the printed setlist had cali stars in the main set, as well as I Got You / Outtasite / Wheel that were all cut.  The show ended at 930. Seemed like an early curfew but that was it.  

Till next time…. 

Vince

Wilco!!

Yo la Tengo 

My wife's fashion review on the Facebook group seems to have sparked some commentary!!

("Chairman Mao with a beanie")

Sad news indeed. 
 

Will the holographic farewell tour make it to the States? 

Quote

William Tyler - Secret Stratosphere

bout damn time.

On 12/15/2023 at 9:38 AM, nalafej said:

 Also, cool coincidence to have randomly sat next to Vince. Nice meeting you.

Likewise!! 
 

After figuring out our VC connection, we were wondering who’d take the reins for this recap with bbop being out and about elsewhere. Nice to see some first rate reporting so quickly!! 
 

Not much to add banter-wise to the above reports; Jeff seemed to have something say between almost every song which was delightful. I could tell that nalafej and I were struggling to jot notes on all of it. 
 

I will say that the room itself was worth an extra mention. Imagine a cube maybe 30’ on each side, with pews for 50 people on that main floor. Set into the walls on each side and rear are “balconies” which are more like small rooms with big rectangular openings in those walls into the cube. There’s even on level of that slightly below floor level on each side. Ornate modern ceiling in squares with stained glass. Definitely the most unique shaped sanctuary or venue I’ve ever seen. 
when Jeff first came out he quipped “I think I’m too asymmetrical for this room” before even strumming the first chord. 
 

Strand of Oaks